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Sports Outside the Beltway

Emory Bellard, creator of wishbone offense, dead at 83

The Wishbone, along with the I formation, were forms of offensive setup when I first started watching college football in the late 1970′s. Alabama won several national championships using the wishbone. Oklahoma ran it to perfection also. I remember how Florida State couldn’t stop the Sooners offense led by JC Watts and Billy Sims in the 1980 Orange Bowl. The Sooners grinding down FSU on the way to a 24-7 win. Sometime in the 80′s the amount of the schools that used the wishbone began to decline. The only two Division I schools I know that use it today are Army and Air Force.

I don’t remember Bellard any where near as well as the offense he created. He left a mark on College Football history. RIP.

Emory Bellard, a former Texas A&M and Mississippi State coach credited with developing the wishbone offense when he was an assistant at Texas, has died. He was 83.

Cathy Capps, director of the Texas A&M Lettermen’s Association, said Bellard died early Thursday at a care facility in Georgetown in Central Texas. She said Bellard had Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Bellard was on Darrell Royal’s staff at Texas in 1968 when the Longhorns developed a multiple running back formation that came to be known as the wishbone.

Bellard later led the Aggies to a 48-27 record in seven years before resigning during the 1978 season. He was 37-42 in seven seasons at Mississippi State.

 

2010 NCAA Women’s Tournament Bracket

Here it is-

2010 Women's bracket

Like with the Men’s tournament, I’ll take a shot at making some guesses predictions in the women’s also.

 

Former Missississippi State Coach Paul Davis dead at 87

He coached the Bulldogs for five years and after that spent two decades as an assistant at Auburn. RIP.

Former Mississippi State head football coach Paul Davis, who led the Bulldogs from 1962 to 1966, has died. He was 87.

Davis died Tuesday at Bethany House, a hospice in Auburn, Ala., according to a hospice spokeswoman and an official at Jeffcoat-Trant Funeral Home in Opelika, Ala. The cause of death was not given.

Davis, a native of Knoxville, Tenn., played at Ole Miss. He was Auburn’s defensive coordinator and assistant head coach under Shug Jordan from 1967 to 1975; an assistant for Doug Barfield from 1975 to 1980; and was a member of Pat Dye’s staff from 1987 to 1990.

In 1963, Davis’ Mississippi State team went 7-2-2 and battled North Carolina State and frigid temperatures to capture the Liberty Bowl in Philadelphia.

Davis’ teams were 20-38-2 overall and 9-22-2 in the Southeastern Conference in his five seasons at Mississippi State.

During his 17-year career at Auburn, Davis coached seven All-Americans and participated in nine bowl games.

 

UF’s Meyer: Dan Mullen will coach in BCS title game

Florida will play Oklahoma for the National Championship. From ESPN-

Florida football coach Urban Meyer said Tuesday that offensive coordinator Dan Mullen will stay on to coach in the Bowl Championship Series title game Jan. 8 against Oklahoma, despite taking the head coaching job at Mississippi State last week.

“The goal is to win the game, and I think right now, unless something changes, it looks like that’s going to happen,” Meyer said. “Is that the best chance of us winning that game, with the mechanics of the game the way we do them? Probably yes. So right now I’d say the plan is he’ll be up in the press box.”

At the Heisman Trophy ceremony Saturday night, Gators quarterback Tim Tebow said it was unlikely Mullen would call the offensive plays against the Sooners. Tebow suggested that Florida could go with a play-calling-by-committee approach in the title game.

Mullen was still in Mississippi and not planning to return to Gainesville until after Christmas, Meyer said. The Gators held their first bowl practice Tuesday, but with final exams scheduled all week, it was mostly conditioning drills. Meyer said detailed game-plan preparations for No. 2 Oklahoma won’t begin until after Christmas.

I never understood Tebow’s Saturday statement from the beginning. The only reason not to let Mullen play call, is because if players and coaches didn’t trust him. If that was true, why wouldn’t Florida tell Mullen his services weren’t needed for the BCS Championship game?

 

Miss St. basketball coach Rick Stansbury hospitalized

He’s coached the Bulldogs for 10 years and taken them to one SEC tournament title. From ESPN-

Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury was admitted Sunday night to Oktibbeha County Hospital with migraines and then went to Northeast Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo on Monday for more testing.

Assistant Robert Kirby told ESPN.com on Monday that he spoke with Stansbury and he fully expected him to coach the Bulldogs in Thursday night’s SEC/Big East Challenge against Cincinnati at U.S. Bank Arena.

Kirby said Stansbury had never experienced migraines before and wanted to get them checked when his condition did not improve. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if Stansbury attended practice Monday.

The Bulldogs are coming off a 19-point win over South Alabama after a loss at home to Charlotte in which the Bulldogs were “out-toughed,” according to Kirby. He said the Bulldogs went to a smaller lineup around shot-blocker Jarvis Varnado but are still looking for more on-court leadership moving forward.

I hope it is nothing serious. Get well coach.

 

Mississippi State hires Florida coordinator Dan Mullen to be head coach

Another dreadful college program in seek of its savoir. From ESPN-

Mississippi State will introduce Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen as its next football coach on Thursday morning in Starkville.

Terms of the deal are not known.

“A lot of people get in this profession and when you have head coaching opportunities, they’re very rare,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said at news conference in Hollywood, Fla. “Head coaching opportunities in the Southeastern Conference at a young age is a great honor. So [Tim Tebow] had the same exact reaction that I did: Doggone it, but we wish you well.”

Mullen, 36, fits the profile Mississippi State was searching for: a high-energy personality, a strong recruiter and an offensive background. In addition, Mullen knows the SEC after four years of working with Meyer in Gainesville — something that gave him an advantage over Oklahoma’s Kevin Wilson, another high-profile offensive coordinator interviewed for the job.

It is unclear whether Mullen will stay with Florida through the FedEx BCS National Championship Game against Oklahoma.

Most coordinators stay for the bowl game but there have been exceptions. MSU hasn’t been to a bowl for 8 years and has been dreadful since Jackie Sherrill retired. With plenty of better programs in the area trying to get the same recruits as MSU, Mullen has his work cut out for him.

Update- MSU was to a bowl game last year. I apologize to the commenter who sent me the correction. It wasn’t my intention to delete your comment.

 
 


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